


The End of the Road

by Icetigris



Category: Bastion
Genre: Blood, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-26
Updated: 2013-05-26
Packaged: 2017-12-13 01:02:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/818118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icetigris/pseuds/Icetigris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens to Zulf at the end of Bastion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End of the Road

Zulf cried out as he was slammed up against the cold rock face.  
“You led him to us! What were you THINKING?!”

“No, I-I—”

The Ura commander glared daggers at him. “No more excuses. You’re a traitor, sold yourself out to the City long ago.” He threw Zulf to the ground. “We should have known from the beginning.”

Zulf pulled himself up. “How can you say that?! I showed you the proof that the Calamity was Caelondia’s treachery!”

“And to what end? So we could use their Bastion? Destroy it? Kill their last Mancer?”

Zulf didn’t have an answer to this.

“No. This is about revenge. To get the Caels back for what they did to us.”

Zulf stood up. “It’s—”

The commander backhanded him and he stumbled backward. Blood trickled from his lip. “We’re done talking. That Caelondian kid has killed too many good men and women, and it’s your fault for leading him here. Their blood is on your hands, Zulf of the Ura—no—Zulf of Caelondia.” The commander kicked Zulf to the ground and held him down with his foot. “You stopped being one of us long ago. You can atone for the sins of the City.”

Zulf closed his eyes. So this is how it would end, he thought. He would die a traitor to his adopted homeland, cast out by the homeland of his birth, and utterly alone.

The first few blows hurt the worst. Zulf felt ribs break as the lieutenant commander stomped on his side, screaming in Ura about his fallen comrade. The slash of a halberd across his shoulder felt like burning ice as another subordinate shouted about her fallen siblings. Pain shot outward like lightning from a fist striking his jaw.

The darkness began to consume him. The screaming, the wailing, the apoplectic whispers of Calamity survivors exacting their revenge on him became a din. He felt blood flowing over his face and spreading across his back. It felt warm, like how he imagined ocean waves. He saw the Kid, and Zia, and even Rucks floating away. He apologized to them for everything, though he knew it would never be enough, he asked for their forgiveness. In his vision, he saw them smile, like they were bidding him farewell.

And that was enough for him.

He turned and saw the silhouette of his fiance, her golden hair framing her smiling face.

“I’m coming home...”

\-------------------

A tremor shook the ground. The Kid slammed his battering ram on the icy floor as a warning shot. The raging Ura soldiers scattered like frightened birds. The Kid couldn’t believe what he saw.

“Zulf...”

He set down the battering ram and felt for a pulse. He was alive, but he wouldn’t be for long without help. The Kid knelt on the ground next to Zulf for a long moment. He had betrayed them all and led the Ura attack force to the Bastion. Rucks would probably understand if he left Zulf there to die, but could he live with that choice?

Zulf had warned the Kid of his intentions. He had given Zia the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to side with her people or with the Bastion. Zulf was a man of his word.

Zulf may have betrayed them, but not without being betrayed himself.

The Kid hoisted Zulf onto his shoulder. Whether he lived or died was not his decision to make.

The Ura soldiers saw the Kid approaching with Zulf in hand and scrambled. Volleys of arrows rained upon them. The Kid winced as they pierced his flesh, but he kept moving. Blood dripped from the arrows embedded in both of them, leaving a trail on the ice. He kept moving. Slowly, the arrows lessened in number and then stopped. The soldiers looked on as this young Caelondian man carried this Ura, traitor to both nations, as if he was his closest comrade. 

As the Kid stepped onto the skyway, he heard a whisper.

“I’m...sorry...”

“It’s okay, Zulf.” They rose into the updraft. “Let’s go home.”


End file.
